This application is not referenced in any microfiche appendix.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to an interactive computer request processing system. More particularly, the invention relates to the field of refilling patient prescriptions using telephone and computer equipment even if patient databank computer interactive communications are unavailable.
2. Background Art
Patients require health care services, such as prescription refills, from health care service provider organizations, such as pharmacies. These organizations often provide automated services to their patients to increase efficiency. Consequently, automated pharmacy technologies must be developed and advanced to provide such services. The resulting technology has become increasingly complex. Multiple layers of automated computer equipment are being placed between a patient and the health care provider""s service. Therefore, multiple points of failure in such technology exist. Any point of failure can cause an automated system, such as an automated pharmacy prescription refill system, to be unavailable for use by a patient demanding the service if some component of the automated system has failed.
Existing automated pharmacy refill systems utilize an answering device to interact with a databank. The databank contains specific patient information including the status of prescriptions. A difficulty with such systems is that if the databank is unavailable to the answering device, the answering device is unable to perform prescription inquiries for the patient until such time as communication with the databank is re-established. If the patient databank computer""s interactive communications are unavailable to the answering computer, the answering computer cannot perform prescription inquiries on demand for the patients since it requires interactive communication with the patient databank computer. Typically, when encountering this situation, callers are informed that services are unavailable. A caller must, therefore, end the call without being provided the needed service.
Consequently, the primary objective of this invention is to allow a patient to request prescription refills on a client computer or answering computer regardless of whether interactive communications are possible with the patient databank computer. Interactive communications with the patient databank computer typically perform prescription refill inquiries and subsequent interpretation of an inquiry response. If the patient databank computer is unavailable, the client or answering computer accepts and stores patient refill requests until interactive communications with the patient databank computer are available. When interactive communications are re-established, the client computer retrieves refill requests from the local database and transmits inquiries to the patient databank computer for validation. The host computer checks each refill request to determine if the refill request is valid, i.e., if it is valid to refill the prescription. If the prescription is still active, the last fill date, the days supply and the grace period are used to determine when the prescription can be filled.
The invention presented herein is a means for allowing patients to request their prescription refills on demand even if the patient databank computer is unavailable for interactive communications with the client computer at the moment in time when the inquiry needs to be made. The invention consists of specific computer programming software algorithms and techniques, and also specific defined procedures performed by computer operators, which operate on a general purpose computer engineered and programmed for answering incoming telephone calls and performing pharmacy prescription refill processing.
More particularly, the invention enables patients using an ordinary telephone to place a telephone call that is answered by a client computer. The client computer collects from the calling patient specific information necessary to refill the patient""s prescription, preferably by touch-tone input from the patient""s phone. The client computer has interactive communications with a patient databank computer that contains specific patient information including the status of prescriptions. The client computer, using the collected patient information, queries the patient databank computer. The patient databank computer then returns a response with particular information about the patient""s prescription. The information is then interpreted and the client computer informs the patient whether or not the prescription can be refilled. However, if the interactive communications link with the patient databank computer is unavailable, then the client computer collects the calling patient""s specific information for future validation processing. The client computer then informs the patient that if the prescription refill is valid, the prescription will be available to the patient at some point in time.
In one embodiment of the invention, the client computer notifies the patient of the patient""s refill status once interactive communications with the host computer have been re-established and the patient""s request has been validated. In the notification step, the client computer extracts the telephone number and status associated with the request and attempts to contact the patient. The client computer then states whether the call was delivered for later reporting to an operator.